14 DAY TRIAL // It’s no secret that Windows XP support is coming to an end in just a few days, but it appears that users do not really care about it, as statistics provided by third-party research companies across the world show that many XP users have no intention to upgrade.
China, which continues to be one of the largest markets for Microsoft, is still pretty much addicted to Windows XP, which means that Redmond’s warnings to upgrade to a newer OS are more or less just a waste of time, at least in this particular market.
StatCounter data for the month of March 2014 shows that Windows XP continues to hold the leading spot in China with a market share of 47.13 percent, while Windows 7 comes second with 44.79 percent.
This means that these two operating systems are powering no less than 91.92 percent of the desktop computers in the country, even though Microsoft has already launched one new operating system – Windows 8 – and two important updates – Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update 1.
China was one of the countries where Microsoft was rumored to be offering extended support due to the big number of computers still running Windows XP in the country. The company, however, has explained that it applies the same decision to all markets, so Windows XP will be discontinued on April 8 all over the world, unless extended support is purchased.
“Microsoft China has taken special actions to closely work with leading Chinese internet security and anti-virus companies including Tencent for them to provide security protection for Chinese Windows XP users before they upgrade to modern operating system,” a statement released by Microsoft in early March explained.
Microsoft has recently signed a deal with the United Kingdom to provide support for Windows XP for another 12 months, but such an agreement is pretty expensive. The UK, for example, will pay Microsoft £5.5 million ($9.1 million / €6.6 million) in exchange for critical and important security updates for Windows XP, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003.
Worldwide, Windows XP is still installed on 28 percent of desktop computers and since end of support is just around the corner, there’s no doubt that many PCs will continue to run this OS version beyond April 8. Microsoft warns that everyone still running Windows XP will become vulnerable overnight if an unpatched flaw is found, despite the plethora of security products that will still work on this OS version after retirement.